


tea break

by AceQueenKing



Category: Lore Olympus (Webcomic)
Genre: Comfort, Gen, Male-Female Friendship, Mentions of Hades/Minthe and Hades/Persephone, Missing Scene, Tea
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:27:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21888898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AceQueenKing/pseuds/AceQueenKing
Summary: Minthe upends Hades' world with her slap; Hekate helps to pick up the pieces.
Relationships: Hades & Hecate (Lore Olympus)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 94
Collections: Yuletide 2019





	tea break

**Author's Note:**

  * For [atomicpixiedust](https://archiveofourown.org/users/atomicpixiedust/gifts).



When she sees Minthe raise her hand to Hades, she has to rescue the boy.

She can’t help but feel protective of him. Frankly, the look on his face suggests he isn’t in any mental state able to really handle this.

She catches Minthe’s arm with her own; Minthe’s a strong little nymph, but Hecate is a _titan_ , one of the last of them. “Go home. You’re suspended until further notice,” she says, all ice-goddess cold. She shoves Minthe off fast as she can, then turns to picking up the pieces of her boss. Been a rough couple days, Hecate knows. Has the undereye bags from his 4 am call and everything. 

The second the little Nymph is out of view, she hugs him: she does this for several reasons. First, for comfort, for what happened to him has been a nasty shock. Second, to remind him he is not a monster, regardless of who his face may resemble. She holds him tight as she can, and only pulls back when he does. His face suggests he has barely felt it.

She gently touches his face: he looks stricken, and she does not blame him.

“You okay?” She stares at him, and he stares back. He holds a hand up to her hand on his cheek. He pulls it away. He stares at his hand, as if it has some answers.

“Hecate,” he says, and his voice is delicate. “I think I’m having a crisis. What time is it?”

She glances at her watch. “A little after noon.”

“Am I allowed to have a crisis at a little after noon?” _Oh, boy_ , Hecate thinks. She gives him a little smile.

“It’s alright. Even if it wasn’t, for you, I’ll make an exception.” She grabs his hand, still being stared at as if it will grow sixteen hissing snakes or some other horrors, and tugs him toward his office. No use letting the underlings see him like this. Hard enough to keep Thanatos on the job; it’ll be even worse if Thanatos sees him like this, and she isn’t going to listen to hours of _why do I have to work if the boss isn’t working_. He doesn’t respond at all and she grunts and tugs a little hard. “Come on.”

“Okay.” He’s a docile boy, deep down. He follows mutely behind, doesn’t protest or offer much resistance as she shoves him onto his office couch. He doesn’t protest that, either; he just puts his hand back up to his cheek and she thinks _oh boy_.

“Stay.” He just blinks at her, which isn’t a response, but he also isn’t moving, so she decides that’s fine for now.

She reaches for his phone, dials his 1 pm and 2 pm calls, cancels. Glances at him. No reaction. She sighs, then picks up and calls out his 3 and 4 pm appointments, too. She reschedules them all distributed throughout next week; one more conference in the middle of Funday Monday (as all third Mondays of the month are called) won’t be fun, but it’s less damaging then sending him in there like this, mute as a hatchling.

“You don’t have to do that,” he says, his voice small and distantly tiny. “I can power through.”

“I already did it.” She moves over to the couch, sits next to him and gently ruffles his hair. “That’s all a problem for next week’s Hades.”

“Next week Hades isn’t –” He frowns, and she just taps his leg. He needs a distraction.

“I’m going to make us some tea. You want tea?” He looks at her, as if she’s asked which toe she wants him to chop off.

“I’m not –”

“We’re having tea.” Tea is good, healing. Thankfully, his office is damn close to the executive breakroom, and thanks to his love of glass architecture, she can even keep an eye on him. Which she absolutely does as she adds some water into the office kettle, flicks it to boil. She doesn’t look directly at him, but she doubts from the lost look on his face that he would even notice if she did. She flickers through the tea bag til she finds her own… _special_ blend; it’ll help, she thinks. Passionflower, lavender, chamomile…and just the tiniest pinch of blue lotus, to call up mother Nyx.

He moves suddenly, gets up; she watches openly in alarm as he strolls over to the mirror, and her heart threatens to shatter as he stares at himself, trying not to see what everyone else surely does.

The tea boils, she adds it to the cups, quickly strolls back into the room. Hades is, bless his heart, at least distractible, and Hecate tries to use that to her advantage now. “Hey,” she says. “She didn’t do any damage.”

“Not looking for that.” He looks at her, at the tray as she noisily puts it on his table. “Thanks.”

He doesn’t come back to sit down and so she is forced to walk over to him; she sighs and puts her hands on his back, peers around his shoulder at the two of them, staring back. He looks hurt. She looks worried. True enough, but so dour it forces her to crack a joke. She smiles to hide the pain, and gently says, “You finished being blue?”

“Do I look like him?” She hides a wince in what is surely an acting job convincing enough to be declared _the_ actress of the month; she deserves a golden laurel for how she keeps herself from reacting. She has been around since Cronus’ reign and she knows, as much as he surely does, that her words will have weight.

It is true there’s a physical resemblance; Hades has his father’s coloring, his build, even his nose. But she remembers the madness of his father, and remembers, too, the cruelty of him. In those things, they couldn’t be farther apart.

“No,” she says. “Only a fool would think that.” He half-smiles, which is a good sign; normally, he tells her not to lay into Minthe if she even comes close to breaching the subject of their incompatibility. Now, Hecate never minded the girl as much as some of his Olympian family, but now, well – the kid gloves are off. She’s seen the damage that nymph can do.

“You have to admit there’s a physical—”

“If being blue made us _him_ ,” she says icily, “then I’m no different than you. Do you look at me and think _daddy_?”

He blinks, shakes his head. “But he’s not your–”

“Drink your tea before it gets cold.” She hands it to him, and, good boy that he is, he takes a sip.

“When it comes to blood, if you go looking for comparisons, you will find them,” she murmurs, her voice purposefully low. _Mama Nyx_ , she thinks, _help him._ “But anyone who only looks at only your surface characteristics isn’t worthy of your time, Hades.”

He nods, miserable. “Are you saying I should break up with Minthe?”

 _Gods above, yes,_ Hecate thinks, but she knows that’s a decision the man has to make for himself. Part of being a big boy; making your own decisions.

“That’s something you have to think about,” she says, delicately. “Later. After you’ve cooled down a bit.”

“I used to imagine there wouldn’t be anyone else…” His speech is a bit slurred; she thinks it’s the blue lotus in the tea. Good. Mama Nyx can help calm him a bit more than she can, and she’ll get Hera in on this too, she thinks. It’s an all-hands situation. “But Persephone…”

She looks at him sharply; she doesn’t want him tossing one woman off a pedestal to put another on it. Especially such a sweet girl; if they wind up together, Persephone deserves to be more than just a rebound. “That’s a different problem. Don’t wind your strings together. You’ll just make a mess.”

He sips the rest of his tea, puts it down on the table with a short, wobbly little _clink_.

“I’m getting a little sleep…ugh…” he falls forward, asleep; mama Nyx, she knows, will help comfort him from there. Good thing that boy never could hold his hallucinogens too well.

She stands, gently takes a sip of her tea – why not – and slowly lowers him down onto the couch, gently so he won’t wake up.

She reaches over to his phone, gently dials a long-distance call that he keeps on speed-dial despite all the reasons he shouldn’t. “Hi Hera,” she says, twirling her fingers into the wire. He needs a positive female influence; one who isn’t Persephone – best to keep him from trying to rebound any harder than he already is – and Hera’s bossy enough to push back if he tries to do anything Hera doesn’t want to do. 

“Hecate!” Hera is smiling, she can hear it through the phone line. “What’s going on?”

“A bit of a code blue, I’m afraid,” Hecate says; the first one they’ve had in a long time, a long, _long_ time.

Hera sighs. “I’m on my way. Is he—?”

“He’s fine. Just sleeping, for now. Sent him to mama Nyx but – I think he needs a more familiar face.”

“What happened? Hebe don’t—” She listens to Hera wrestle something out of her daughter’s hands and waits for the scuffle to calm down before answering.

“Minthe. She said he looked like Chronos. Slapped him around. You know him; physical pain is nothing, but he’s found a new problem to tie himself in knots emotionally with.”

The line goes silent and cold; she hears Hera sigh. “I presume you turned that little nymph into mulch already?”

“Nope, just suspended her. He wouldn’t forgive us if we did that, Hera.” Hera’s always had her setting for mercy stuck on _revenge_ , but Hades has to make his own big boy decisions. Even when it comes to letting Minthe go. Taking it out of his hands won’t fix anything. “Let him make up his own mind. If he wants to turn her into mulch, I promise I’ll be the first one over with some hexes and grave dirt, okay?”

“ _Fine_.” She hears Hera clapping her hands; calling her chariot, no doubt. “But I’m in on vengeance if he wants it.” _You always are_ , she thinks.

“Alright. I’ll keep an eye on him until you get here. Best he’s not alone.” He moans in his sleep as if to illustrate the point; she thinks he’s lucky that he has Hecate to watch out for him. He’d be in an even bigger basket of shit if it was Themis or Thanatos or one of the many other useless gossips trapped down here with him. He’s a tender heart, her boss; it makes him a better ruler than his father, but it makes him more delicate, too. Be easy for someone to manipulate it, someone who was less careful than Hekate.

“See you soon,” Hera says, and hangs up with a deafening _click_.

She clears off the tea and pulls some of the paperwork off of his desk, going through what she can while she looks in on him.

After all, Underworld keeps on rolling, regardless of their personal dramas.

“You’re lucky you have me to keep up with paperwork,” she jokes, and she swears, even in his sleep, she catches the hint of a smile.


End file.
